It is common practice in the industry to score foam panels and balsa wood in order to allow it to curve around complex shapes. Scoring consists of cutting slits partially through the panel on each side, or cutting slits completely through the panel and securing the individual pieces with a scrim. This may result in significant resin absorption due to infusion, and the cut foam panels and balsa wood may end up being more flexible than is really useful.
There is a need to have composite structures formed from low density strips able to be contoured in the direction of the composite along the length of the strips and able to be contoured in both directions along the strip length and perpendicular to the strip length for such complex shapes such as a dome or saddle shape.